Liquid desiccant air conditioning systems can provide an effective means to cool, dehumidify, and otherwise condition ambient air. Examples of such systems are described in the following international patent applications: WO 99/26026, WO 00/55546, and WO 03/056249.
One thing that is common to most desiccant-based air conditioning systems is the need to provide heating or cooling to control the temperatures of a fluids within the system—e.g., the desiccant on the dehumidification side, the desiccant on the regeneration side, and the airflows on either or both of these sides. Although the source of heating or cooling may come from any of a number of different sources, it would be advantageous to have a desiccant-based air conditioning system that could control the temperature of the desiccant by heat transfer to or from multiple sources, where each source could be used individually or together based on system needs and the availability of the sources.